Seven of world's Top 10 2021 busiest airports in China

CAPA has compiled a table of the Top 50 airports in 2020 and compared with existing data for the whole of 2021 or in some cases for parts of 2021, such as Jan- to Nov-2021.

As China has largely kept COVID-19 at bay domestically, its airports have seemingly defied gravity while global airports have offered only mixed results. Seven of the world's 10 busiest airports in 2021 were in China.The other three in the top 10 are US airports, also on the back of a strong revival of domestic travel, albeit while almost 1 million Americans have died of the virus.

This report examines the top 50 airport performances by region.

While 'official' passenger statistics for 2021 at the world's leading airports have not in many cases been revealed, sufficient data has been made available to CAPA to make substantial validatory assessment about growth rates compared to 2020.

Although some parts of the world have witnessed quite strong growth in 2021 at these top airports (for example in Europe and North America), the Asia Pacific region remains a hotchpotch of conflicting data, with some airports also experiencing good growth but others stuck in a nuclear winter of constantly plummeting statistics. Indeed, there are some airports that could take many years to regain their previous status - if they ever do.

It is also clear that the statistics continue to be influenced by the anti-pandemic measures forced upon different countries, or within those countries on states or provinces or regions, with passenger numbers varying sometimes quite wildly, accordingly.